West Indies sunk to a demoralising five-wicket defeat against India in the first One-Day International in Barbados recently, after left-arm spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja demolished their batting.
The Caribbean side’s struggles in the format continued when Kuldeep ended with the flattering figures of 4 for 6 from three overs and Jadeja supported with 3 for 37 from six overs. West Indies were dismissed for 114 in 23 overs after being sent in to bat first. They still had 27 overs available when the last wicket fell.
West Indies Captain Shai Hope led his team’s batting with 43 and Alick Athanaze made 22, but no other batsman on team even reached 20, while most of them were undone by the variations of Kuldeep’s wrist spin and Jadeja’s finger spin on an unpredictable Kensington Oval pitch.
Left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie and leg-spinner Yannic Cariah caused a few anxious moments for the Indian batsmen but once wicket-keeper opener Ishan Kishan slammed seven fours and one six in 52 from 46 deliveries, there was never any doubt the result.
West Indies were gifted a few cheap wickets before Indian captain Rohit Sharma formalised the result with 163 balls remaining when he swung a delivery from Motie to the deep mid-wicket boundary for his second four.
The result meant that the Caribbean side trailed 0-1 in the three-match series.
WI captain, Hope bemoaned the unpredictable nature of the pitch and team’s lack of adequate preparation for his side’s lopsided loss, which comes on the heels of their failure to qualify for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 in India in October. This is the first time West Indies will be missing from the global showpiece.
“It was a tough day at the office,” Hope said.
“We didn’t start well, but we fought back in the end and so I commend the guys for the effort that they showed in the field but runs on the board is always runs on the board, and we didn’t have enough,” he added.
